Month: February 2018

Vatican City, Feb 25, 2018 / 11:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis said Jesus never leaves his followers alone, but always prepares them for the trials they will face, just as he during his transfiguration, which helped his disciples to understand and cope with his Passion and death.

“In the transfiguration, Jesus makes himself seen as he is in heaven, glorious, luminous, triumphant,” the Pope said Feb. 25. Jesus did this, he said, “to prepare for the scandal of the cross, because the disciples couldn’t understand that Jesus could die as a criminal.”

At the time, Jesus’ disciples thought of him as an earthly authority who always triumphs, however, the faith Jesus is different: “he triumphs in the humiliation of the cross.”

“Jesus makes seen what will come after the cross, what awaits all of us,” he said, explaining that Jesus always prepares each person for the trials they will face, and gives them the strength “to go forward in trials and overcome them with his strength.”

Pope Francis marked the Second Sunday of Lent by celebrating Mass at the Roman parish of San Gelasio I Papa in Rome’s Ponte Mammolo neighborhood. The parish is home to some 250 poor in the area, and every Thursday offers breakfast and lunch to some 50 people who come to their soup kitchen.

After arriving around 4p.m., Francis met with children and young people, families, elderly and parishioners who are sick, as well as those who work in the parish’s Caritas program. After meeting with each group, the Pope met privately with two youth from Gambia, ages 18 and 25, who are housed by the parish. He then heard the confessions of several parishioners before starting Mass.

In his brief, off-the-cuff homily, the Pope said that in the day’s Gospel reading from Mark, which recounts the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain, God sends a clear message when he says “this is my beloved Son, listen to him.”

“There is no moment of life which cannot be lived fully listening to Jesus,” he said, and urged parishioners to continue Lent remembering “the glory of Jesus, who is present to give us strength,” and listening to Jesus, “who always speaks to us.”

“In daily life when we have problems, let us ask ourselves: what does Jesus want of me today?” he said, noting that at the wedding feast in Cana, Mary also gave a very specific piece of advice: “do what he tells you. This is the sure way. Listen and do what Jesus says.”

Before Mass, when he first arrived to the parish, Pope Francis stopped to greet the parishioners waiting outside in the rain. Jesting about the weather, he said, “when did you arrive? You got wet, eh?”

He thanked them for having the patience to endure the bad weather, and told them that life is often like the weather: “sometimes there is sun, other times there is rain…know that in life there are good times and bad.”

A Christian, he said, must always move forward with courage. “There will be storms, (but) go forward, Jesus guides us,” he said, adding that”tis is what a Christian must do, go forward in good times and in bad.”

In his meeting with elderly parishioners, Pope Francis thanked them for everything they do for both the Church and the world, saying their witness of faith and love “is like keeping the fire (going): you are the embers of the world.”

“You are aware that you have a mission, to carry forward that hidden fire. You are the embers of the Church,” he said, and urged them to talk and listen young people. Thought it’s not always easy, “they need your experience.”

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Vatican City, Feb 25, 2018 / 04:37 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After a week of heavy bombardment near Damascus left hundreds of civilians dead, Pope Francis has made an appeal for global leaders to rally in ending the siege, allowing civilians to evacuate and humanitarian aid to get in.

“In these days my thought is often turned to the beloved and martyred Syria, where the war has exploded again, especially in Eastern Ghouta,” the Pope said Feb. 25, noting that this month marks one of the most violent since the Syrian conflict erupted seven years ago.

Thousands of innocent lives have been claimed by the ongoing, bloody war, with several hundred more being added just this past week, many of whom are women, children and elderly, he said.

“Hospitals have been hit, people can’t get enough to eat…all of this is inhumane,” Francis said, stressing that “evil cannot be fought with another evil.”

The Pope then issued “a heartfelt appeal” for global leaders to work to stop the violence, to allow humanitarian aid such as food and medicine into the area, and to ensure that the sick and wounded would be evacuated.

Francis’ appeal comes a week after Russian-backed Syrian forces launched a series of deadly airstrikes and artillery fire on besieged Easter Ghouta enclave, which sits just northeast of Damascus.

Home to some 400,000 people, Eastern Ghouta is the last rebel-held area east of Damascus and has been a target of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces since 2013 in a bid to drive the rebels out.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the fresh eruption of conflict in the area, which began Feb. 18, has so far left more than 500 civilians dead, of whom 121 are children. Aid groups also report that several hospitals in the area are now out of commission.

After three days of deliberation to come up with a ceasefire deal, the U.N. Security Counsel yesterday voted unanimously in favor of a resolution calling for a 30-day calm to allow residents of the suburb to evacuate, and food and medicine to enter.

However, reports indicate that just hours after the deal was accepted, the Syrian government launched a new  ground and air offensive in the area.

Pope Francis’ appeal, which he made during his Angelus address for the Second Sunday of Lent, asked pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square to join him in praying that his plea would be answered “without delay.” He then led pilgrims in a moment of silence before reciting a Hail Mary.

In his address, he focused on the transfiguration of Jesus in the day’s Gospel reading from Mark, saying the announcement that he would be rejected, put to death and would then rise on the third day “put Peter and the group of the disciples into crisis,” since they had been expecting a powerful Messiah who would rule the nations.

However, instead, Jesus presents himself “as a humble and meek servant of God and of men,” who was to give his life in sacrifice through persecution, suffering and a violent death.

The transfiguration, Francis said, ultimately helps the disciples to face the Passion of Christ in a positive way, “without being overwhelmed” by it. It also helps both the disciples, and us, to understand that while Jesus’ Passion is “a mystery of suffering,” it’s above all “a gift of infinite love on the part of Jesus.”

“The event of Jesus who transfigures himself on the mountain also helps us to better understand his resurrection,” the Pope said, explaining that if the transfiguration and God’s declaration that “this is my beloved Son” had not happened before Jesus’ Passion, neither this nor Jesus’ rising in the Paschal mystery would be easily understood.

In order to understand these events, he said, “it’s necessary to know in advance that he who suffers and who is glorified is not only a man, but the Son of God, who with his love faithful to death has saved us.”

Francis said that it’s important, especially during Lent, to go up the mountain with Jesus and be with him and listen to his voice, allowing oneself to be transformed by the Holy Spirit.

“It’s the experience of contemplation and prayer, of living not in avoidance of daily struggles, but of enjoying familiarity with God, in order to take up with renewed vigor the tiring path of the cross, which leads us to the resurrection.”

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Vatican City, Feb 23, 2018 / 11:40 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday Pope Francis returned from his week-long Lenten spiritual exercises in Ariccia, where he and members of the Roman Curia have been on their annual retreat since Sunday afternoon.

Before boarding the bus that would take him back to Vatican City, Francis thanked the priest who preached the exercises for his reflections and for encouraging members of the Curia to be open to the Holy Spirit and not stuck in bureaucratic structures.

“Thank you, Father, for having spoken of the Church, for having made us, this small flock, feel the Church,” the Pope said Feb. 23.

He thanked Fr. José Tolentino de Mendonça for reminding them that “the Church is not a cage for the Holy Spirit,” and also voiced thanks for receiving a warning “not to shrink it with our bureaucratic worldliness!”

Fr. Tolentino is a Portuguese priest, poet, and Biblical theologian who preached during the spiritual exercises, which this year focused on the theme: “Praise of Thirst.”

De Mendonça is vice-rector of the Portuguese Catholic University in Lisbon and has been a consultant of the Pontifical Council for Culture since 2011. He was ordained a priest in 1990 and completed his master’s degree in Biblical Studies in Rome before later obtaining a doctorate in biblical theology from the Portuguese Catholic University, where he later taught as an assistant professor.

In his brief greeting at the end of the retreat, Pope Francis also thanked De Mendonça for helping them understand how the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of non-believers and those of other religious confessions, saying the Holy Spirit is “universal, he is the Spirit of God, who is for everyone.”

Francis noted that there are many people today like the centurions and the guards at Peter’s prison who live with an “an inner search” and who know how to tell when there is “something that calls” them.

He thanked De Mendonça for the call “to opening ourselves without fear, without rigidity, for being malleable in the Spirit and not mummified within our structures that close us off.”

The Pope also noted how he had declared Friday as a day of prayer and fasting for South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Syria, saying the spiritual retreat is extended through the offerings they will make on behalf of the war-torn countries.

Held Feb. 18-23, this year’s curial Lenten spiritual exercises began Sunday evening with adoration and vespers. The rest of the week followed a basic schedule beginning with Mass at 7:30 a.m., followed by the first meditation of the day.

In the afternoon, a second meditation was preached before concluding with adoration and vespers. Friday, the final day of the exercises, consisted of only a morning meditation. Pope Francis and the curia then left the retreat house, returning to the Vatican at 11:15 a.m.

The exercises took place at the Casa Divin Maestro in Ariccia, a town just 16 miles outside of Rome. Located on Lake Albano, the retreat house is just a short way from the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. It will be the fifth consecutive year the Pope and members of the Curia have held their Lenten retreat at the house in Ariccia.

While the practice of the Bishop of Rome going on retreat with the heads of Vatican dicasteries each Lent began some 80 years ago, it had been customary for them to follow the spiritual exercises on Vatican ground. Beginning in Lent 2014, Pope Francis chose to hold the retreat outside of Rome.

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